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Opinion

Perry’s ad far from “strong”

Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential election, recently released his presidential ad, “Strong.” Perry’s incredibly ignorant ad left me utterly confused.

To summarize his 30-second ad for his 2012 presidential election campaign, Perry focuses on his core constituency, the far right wing conservatives. In his ad, he addresses many contemporary social issues such as prayers in public schools and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Perry starts off his ad by speaking about his religion and conservative ideals.

“I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school,” he says.

After hearing Perry voice his opinions, it made me question if he really knows what he is saying.

Perry cannot expect to win the race when not all Republicans are as far to the right as he is. He says he is concerned that public schools do not allow all of their students to pray openly, but majority of the students have different religions and beliefs. Can one even imagine having to pray before an announcement every day? For those who are not Christian, it would be very disrespectful to their own religions and beliefs.

Based on what I see, schools are very good with all sorts of things based on religion and holidays. Normally students cannot wear hats in the classroom, but they are allowed to if it is part of their religion. Students could also have excused absences for religious holidays. So if  students want to openly celebrate Christmas with friends during lunch or break at school, they are allowed to do so.

In addition, Perry mentions that it is wrong for homosexuals to openly serve in the military. Perry shows ignorance by discriminating against gays and their right to serve in the military.

Perry’s presidential ad “Strong” is just dim-witted. He is not what the Republican Party needs, especially since it needs to reform its public image. If I were a Republican, I would not vote for Perry.